Stories from People in Levels – level 3

I think that Hong Kong’s educational system with its policies and exams is the worst! A lot of people have been complaining about it for a long time. However, the government does not respond to the complaints.

I'm an F6 student from Hong Kong and I realize how the education system is only focused on the public exam. I'm not going to tell you what my feelings are, but I want to share with you what is actually happening to students in Hong Kong.

The public exam DSE should be used to assess what you have learned in school. However, the Hong Kong's education system is different. Studying in Hong Kong means "learning" how to handle the public exam instead of acquiring real knowledge. It means the curriculum is based on the exam. It is totally ridiculous.

In my opinion, learning must be based on interest. If you are not interested in what you are doing or what you are learning, you can't do it well. In Hong Kong, we just prepare for the DSE in the classroom. This is meaningless. We are only taught the skills we need to pass the exam. Why do we need to learn these?

This is because the Hong Kong exam is not used to assess your knowledge but to assess your skills of passing exams. For example, in an English writing paper, you'll need to use phrases and vocabulary that are not commonly used. If you don't use these phrases and difficult words, you'll just get a low mark and fail the exam.

As a result, students in Hong Kong can't really acquire knowledge at school. What we learn is not useful for us. We can't learn what we are really interested in. It is not under our control. We have no choice but to pass the exam.